El Presidente’s musings – the complete collection!
Yes, now in an easily accessible form for your viewing pleasure – El Presidente’s musings is now a page on this blog.
It’s really a digest of my readings and musings on things photographic – none of the messy club business, just the pure reading/viewing list. It may not last past this Presidency, but it’s a sort of reading resource we’ve talked about for a while.
Cheers
Chris 🙂
Urban Lanscape – Competition
Two weeks ago we had the Urban Landscape competition. This was judged by a non-SAPF judge. Simone Hanckel is a professional photographer working in “black and white children’s photography”. First some of the images and then some comments from the club face book page.
Ashley Hoff
April 8 at 1:03pm
So, how did you find the judge last night? I thought she added something else and did a fantastic job!
Anyhow, if you want, check out her facebook page: Simone Hanckel Photography
842 Likes
Comments
Jennifer Williams Sorry I missed it
April 8 at 3:00pm
Chris Schultz Ditto – I like good judging and from the sound of it the club benefited. Well done to Alberto for arranging something fresh!
April 8 at 4:06pm
Helen Fletcher Simone’s positivity and feedback were really something special. I learnt a lot last night. And that’s what it’s all about. Thanks Alberto – great choice of judge.
April 8 at 5:38pm
James Allan I like the fact that she never gave up on an image. She was an excellent interpreter of the authors vision. Better than the “this is what is wrong with this image” approach. Top marks
April 8 at 8:18pm
Jennifer Williams Sounds like I missed a great night
April 8 at 9:52pm
Stephanie Mallen Yes I thought she was great – she tried to offer some valuable comments for every image. She made some very good points about directing the viewers eye.
April 11 at 11:44pm
James Allan Do you think we should write this up for the webpage? Any objections to using the facebook comments?
April 16 at 10:50pm
Helen Whitford sounds like a good idea!
Yesterday at 9:24am
In conclusion – Another interesting night. Well done to everyone who contributed.
James Allan
Circles Competition – from March
Peter Philips judged the circle competition this week. The set judge phoned in sick and Peter was called upon at the last minute. Actually earlier in the day he had driven back from the limestone coast where he and Keith Seidel had been judging. Peter however sounded fresh, quite a feat considering the travel he had done earlier in the day. After the meeting he confided to me that he actually really enjoyed judging at our club and found the standard to be quite high.
There were several themes arising out of the competition. Oil droplets on water was one. I was very impressed by images from Judy Sara and Helen Fletcher on this theme. This might be a good subject for a future workshop. We saw a number of poppies, and the Endeavour replica berthed at Port Adelaide. There were a dozen or so birds, a bug or two and a frog. Of course the car enthusiasts found lots of circles in hub caps and car dials and bolt heads and scooter mirrors. Peter did lose his composure at one point, describing a picture as rubbish. That however was not a reflection on the quality, but was the subject of the photo. (Old drink containers and empty cartons). Jenny Pedlar had an impressive close up of the chrome hot dog stand at the recent Adelaide Festival. Mark got no credit for his Bas relief of taxis, but scored 10 with chairs at the art Gallery. He had a smile on his face.
Ray Goulter informed me that the scores ranged from 6 to 10 with an average of 7.5. Well actually I found myself struggling with less than expected scores in the print competition. This is always a sign that the competition is strong. The satisfying thing was the range of new faces in the honours list. Robyn Due scored 10 with heads up, a picture of Ken’s hats on a wall hanger. Howard Seaman scored 10 with a still life, Sam Savage with Entrada, Di Gage with her image of Cogs, David Atkinson with Slats and circle and Helen Fletcher with Brighton Beach. Unfortunately Helen Whitford, who is busy with the SAPF competition, was able to enter only one photo. Alberto Guirelli however did not disappoint, scoring well with images from Lake Bonnie and Italian street scenes and a Goth (did he say it was his daughter?). Well done to all. I finally scored well in the very last print shown, a doorway on Tolmer place, from the Norwood Excursion. I promptly forgave Peter for being fickle with my earlier images.
As Peter said in his introduction, there is no shame in coming last in the Olympic 100m sprint. It is indeed an honour to be of the standard to be in the running. I think the same could be said of our competition. The worst image tonight was bloody good.
James Allan
Circles in Norwood
CIRCLES – COME OUT, COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE – A balmy Sunday evening brought eight club members to Norwood in search of circles. We looked high, we looked low, we looked left and right and surprise, surprise circles we did find. Like most things in photography the more you look, the more you see and it’s amazing where you’ll find circles.
Read more in the article on the Norwood excursion by Bruce Nankervill in the February edition of Camera Clips.
A night of positive Judging – 28-Jan-2016
Our first competition for the year on Thursday January 28 was a great starter for what promises to be a busy and stimulating 2016.
Rigging – James Allan
The subject for the night was ‘Leading Lines’, which is a composition technique where the viewer’s eye is led into the image. Our judge was David Rowlands from Edwardstown Photography Club and what an encouraging and uplifting judge he was. With a significant number (115) of impressive images to work through he did so with a burst of positive and constructive feedback for every one of them. His comments were well considered, informed, concise and articulate.
Regardless of how your photograph scored you felt like you’d both learned something positive from the commentary and you were left inspired to reach greater heights.
With our constantly growing club the evening was well attended (about 45) by a welcoming and appreciative audience all very keen to learn.
First time entrant, Di Gage presented us with two inspiring images, one of a very beautiful soft Victoria River sunset and another of a fishing boat and its perfect reflection complete with bird resting obediently on a rope. A perfect start with one image scoring full marks. Another relatively new entrant, Robyn Due, was justifiably excited to score a 9 for her Port Adelaide excursion image, entitled ‘Pot’ a well spotted image of paving, posts and buildings providing interesting leading lines.
Pot – Robyn Due
Some of the excellence of our seasoned performers was on display with the likes of Alberto Giurelli, Helen Whitford, Jenny Pedlar, Ursula Prucha, James Allan and Chris Schultz
Mark Pedlar’s image (below) entitled Cornwall’s Motto captured, for those who weren’t there, the area in which the recent Port Adelaide excursion took place and plenty of Leading Lines. A quite stunning shot.
Mark Pedlar – Cornwall’s Motto
The following are more of the high scoring ‘Leading Lines’ images from the night.
Kelp – Heather Connolly
Port River Dolphin – James Allan
Nestled Farmhouse – Judy Sara
Blue Moth on Sunflower – Ursula Prucha
Nation Ridge – Chris Schultz
Fishing – Jenny Pedlar
Arches of Light – Bruce Nankivell
Follow the Leader – Helen Whitford
To see more great ‘Leading Lines’ images visit the ‘Top Projected Images‘ and ‘Top Prints‘ pages.
It seems to me that photography is one of those games where just when you think you’ve nailed some small part of it you are instantly reminded via someone else’s display of skill that you really haven’t and there is a long way to go. I’m convinced it is a never ending story of learning and I guess that’s why we all love it.
Makes you wonder what kind of fabulous circles we can create with our next competition, entitled ‘Circles’, of course.
Bruce Nankivell
Dawn at Port Adelaide
We have a write up and some images from the Port Adelaide Excursion. It was agreat morning shoot.
If you have more to add, please send the text or pictures to me. (jandfallan@internode.on.net) I want to capture as many different members as possible. Have a look at the collection thus far.
https://cameraclips05.wordpress.com/stop-press/dawn-at-port-adelaide-excursion/
31 Day Challenge
Further to Chris’s post below, Jen Williams has written a review of the 31 Day challenge in camera clips. Have a look.
https://cameraclips05.wordpress.com/stop-press/31-day-challenge-2015-jen-williams/
31 Day Challenge for December 2015
Greetings from 2016! And Happy New Year!
Well – the 31 Day Challenge for December 2015 is over, and we had a fun time – at least I think we did. It was hard work finding a topic a day, but Judy, Bruce, Frances, David, Heather, Jen, James and I kept up the pace for the full 31 days. There were plenty of images from Kerry, Anne, Dana and even Matt (remember him?). Lots of photos (435 at last count) and lots of challenges for the participants. The list is just the ones that were posted on our Flickr page – there are lots of other images from each photographer in the mix you can explore.
Some interesting comments from our participants at the end put it in perspective (and a few of their photos):
Judy: “It has certainly stretched my photography. I learn from trial and error and there have certainly been lots of shots deleted but in the process I have got to know what my camera can do and my skills are steadily improving. I was fascinated to find so many insects in my garden. Most of them were feeding on different sections of the hollyhocks!”
Frances: “As we saw in the new year with friends I just wanted to say thanks for letting me participate in the 31 day challenge. I learnt heaps, from how to take photos, and how to mess them up, as well as the limitations of a compact camera compared to an SLR.”
Heather: “this is the life. It really has been a challenge, a great insight into contributors diversity and skills.”
Bruce: “Had a great month of playing photographer and scratching my head every day as to the next subject. I know I’ve increased my skills, maybe just a little, but it’s growth none the less. Thanks Flickr & thanks Blackwood Photographic Club for running this valuable December challenge.”
So here a few photos that I can access and embed:
https://flic.kr/p/BRUFgj
You can view the whole group on Flickr in this search BPC 31 Day Challenge for 2015 . If you haven’t looked at the images yet, please have a look, comment on the images and see what your fellow BPC members have been up to.
Now for those of you wanting to try something longer term, how about a 52 week challenge? I came across this blog this week (there are others, but this one seems well structured). One photo a week with the core themes of Portraits, Landscapes or Artistic impression. The photographer suggesting it (Dale Foshe at Dogwood Photography in the US) has made the list for you. All you need to do is follow the list (which I’ll email out each week as well) and you can play along in the same way. Just post in the club Flickr group and tag the photo with “BPC 52 week challenge 2016” and we can see what comes of it. To participate in the world wide group, you should add the tags dogwood52 and dogwood <week number> (eg this is dogwood 1). Are you up for it? Can you produce a photo a week based on the nominated topic? This week it starts with a Self Portrait.
And a final reminder – the Coventry Library in Stirling is hosting the best of the best from our Annual Exhibition. Pop in and have a look – we have a very talented bunch, and after this years 31 Day Challenge, I think we’ll have lots of new faces in the 2016 Annual Exhibition!
Cheers
Chris 🙂
Annual Exhibition 2015
The annual exhibition is the culmination of the years calendar. Everyone brings their best work to display. This year was no exception. The judging was conducted at the Pedlars house a fortnight before. There were 3 judges, Gary Secombe, John Seidel and Renee Holmes.
On the night all of the images were displayed. There were so many images that we ran out of display room. The monochrome images needed to be laid out on tables at the back.
There was a presentation of awards. These were distributed among a wide cross section of the club. Apart from old names like Theo Prucha, Jenny Pedlar, Helen Whitford and Jo Tabe, awards went to newer members like Bruce Nankivell, Gloria Brumfield and Kerry Malec. Congratulations must however go to all the prize and award winners. Also I would like to acknowledge the work of all of the contributors – as the exhibition displayed the best of everyone’s work through out the year. I couldn’t help thinking that the standards are going up and we are all being stretched by the competition.
The winners of the major awards this year are as follows:
- Album Prints – Best Image – Edge Malpas Award – Helen Whitford
- Album Prints – Aggregate – JV Spick Award – Theo Prucha
- Colour Prints – Best Image – Fotoswift Award – Helen Whitford
- Colour Prints – Aggregate – Blackwood Photographic Club Award – Helen Whitford
- Monochrome – Best Image – I’ve been Framed Award – Alberto Giurelli
- Monochrome – Aggregate – Blackwood Times award – Jo Tabe
- Projected Images – Best Image – Hutt Street Photos Award – Bruce Nankivell
- Projected Images – WEA Landscape Trophy – Jo Tabe
- Projected Images – Aggregate – Photographic Wholesalers Award – Helen Whitford
I must thank Ashley for taking images and making them available for this article. There was a lot of work that went on behind the scenes in preparation for the exhibition, including application forms, databases, collecting images, the judging, printing and displaying.
As well as the presentation of photographic achievement awards, the Bill Templar Award was given to Graham Field for his contribution to the club over the last year. Sometimes the hardest workers are not always most visible. This is true of Graham who works behind the scenes in his own quiet way. Graham has gone the extra mile repeatedly to help the club run smoothly.
In Camera Clips I have a companion article in which I set out a collection of the award winning images, the merits and most importantly the highest scoring image from each competitor. I have asked competitors to reflect on their best images and give feedback as to how it was taken and why it was entered. Be sure to have a read.
James
BPC presents – Chris Oaten : Live Music Photographer – 22-Oct-2015
Last week BPC had the honour to listen to Chris Oaten speak to us about live music photography. Accompanied by his wife Melody (who provided the background commentary), we had a very entertaining evening that inspired a few of us to take up our camera at a live gig or two.
Chris is a media professional with over 20 years in the industry. Starting from a base of journalism (reporter, writer, sub-editor) he has followed his passion of photography to become a full time professional photographer, is a member of the AIPP and in his spare time photographs live music (I’m sure he does other things in his spare time!). He has extended his knowledge with a TAFE course in photography and is now doing a Bachelor of Visual Communications at UniSA. The night he spoke to us he was due to go to 2am shoot at a construction project. That’s a pro.
Chris Oaten at BPC (Ashley Hoff)
His range of professional work encompasses architecture, sport, travel, humans, commercial and time lapse images. He specialises in time lapse images around our fair city. To view the breadth of his work visit his website.
But as I said, in his spare time he likes to shoot live music with his trusty Canon 5D Mark III and some fast lenses (his range of lenses includes 24mm, 50mm, 70-200mm, 8-15mm, 16-35mm, tilt and shift 17, some Sigma Art lenses – you get the idea – but not all are used at music events). He does the music photography for professional development – not to make a living – which is near impossible these days. You can see some of Chris’s music photography on the Adelaide Music Photography web site he showcases his collaboration with Max Moore.
I’ve watched Chris in action around live music gigs – and to me it seems effortless and unobtrusive. In reality, there is more to it – and what follows is Chris’s take on how to shoot live music.
Chris started by giving a taste of the problems in photographing live music in pubs and has to deal with poor lighting (professional performers often have far better lighting and make the job easy – we were shown some images from a Tina Arena concert), crowded venues etc.
So here are the problems Chris sees – and his solutions:
- Don’t share boring photos!
- You aren’t doing any favours for anyone. So edit what you share ruthlessly and be prepared for harsh criticism.
- Remember, that your photos don’t have the music that goes with them, so they must stand on their own.
- That means they need to be in focus and they need have the action associated with the photo – singers need to be singing, musicians need to be playing their instruments.
- Don’t use on camera flash
- It is needed sometimes, but very rarely
- Don’t use high ISO where possible
- Cheaper cameras can’t do it well, it pushes inaccurate focus
- Hiding noise results in a compromise (over smoothing looks like plastic!). But there are ways to overcome this issue
- Understand your subject
- Good sports photographers often play the game, great nature photographers understand the animal and their behavior etc.
- So in the case of music, understand the dynamics of what is happening on the stage and apply it to the action.
- Not shooting enough frames
- Don’t use spray & pray – that high burst mode – as it will often waste time (eg as the buffer clears) and wear out the shutter sooner. Single shots are better.
- Remember that most of what is happening is out of your control
- To get the shots you need to be an aggressive shooter. What is that? Someone who moves around and makes the shot rather than someone who walks up timidly to the same spot, takes a few shots and walks away. Music photographers need to move around and capture the action, be involved, engage with the artists
So what is Chris’s style? Get in close, use the lighting to your advantage and use selective (ie shallow DOF) focus, often manually.
So what are his solutions?
How not to be boring
Live music is action photography. Instruments are being used. So get profile shots, stick with the subject as the action unfolds.
Bad lighting can be your best friend – it makes you work harder. There is no such thing as bad light – only bad photographers. Chris showed several example of this with the band Lucky 7 at a gig where there was one light behind the artists. Instead of abandoning the shoot, he used the light to create profiles and silhouettes. Think of old horror movies and how they were lit – the images had great power and atmosphere. Do the same.
On the other hand, daylight music festival are a breeze – but you still need to work hard.
Steve Mitchell – by Chris Oaten
Change your position and angle of view. Use the stage equipment to help frame shots. Remember, the photo is telling a story so use the elements of that story. Chris showed us an example at the Semaphore music festival – which unfortunately for the organisers was held on a AFL Finals weekend. The crowd was a bit sparse, but by moving around the stage he was able to make it look busy (using the out of focus background and more crowd), show interesting on lookers, the artists in action from in front, behind and to the side as well eye contact with the artist to lend intimacy to the image.
He quoted photographer Berenice Abbott “photography helps people see” and illustrated this with some great shots:
- a young boy at his fathers gig enjoying the music whilst sitting on the floor
- The interaction of musicians on stage when not playing
- People dancing to the music (and those disconnected from the action) – the burlesque dancer picture
- Interesting people and characters
- Portraits of musicians that they actually like
It’s important to remember that good photographs are enhanced with details – they add depth. That means when taking photographs be observant. Some of the examples acutely demonstrate this:
-
Steve Mitchell – by Chris Oaten
Steve Mitchell from the rockabilly band The Satellites has hair that starts out controlled, but very soon is part of the act
- A musicians special moment – like Belinda Hartman – from The Satellites singing
- the musicians style of playing – like a trombone players blowing their cheeks (or giving cheeky looks) or guitarists with special (eg car seat belt) guitar straps
- Use
- compositional elements
- portrait shots of the performers
- (our tired old friend) the intersection of thirds
- selective focus
- the Golden Spiral – where a photograph spiraled in to one person in focus around the instruments and equipment on stage
- close up features of the instruments or instruments being played (trombone players, guitarists – but drummers are difficult!)
The trick here is to apply what you learn – don’t just be a technician. As Chris said, don’t just be a wood pusher in a chess game (ie know the moves but don’t develop new strategies). In photography, pixels are free, so don’t be a shutter pusher.
How to use on camera flash
Flash does have a role in anti-establishment genres such as Punk and Ska. It is harsh lighting, but can work in such genres. However, at other times it rarely works well.
It’s often better to have off camera flash – and even combine flashes. Chris illustrated this with an image of lighting reflected from a white wall behind the performers onto which the flash fell – much more depth than a straight flash onto the performers.
If you must use flash, use a an orange or yellow gel to warm it (flash can look very cold) – don’t use green or blue. You need to be sympathetic to the available light too – don’t overwhelm the stage lights.
And use the lights to go for drama – like silhouettes or use the light to make more reflections – such as brass instruments.
How to handle high ISO
You’ll need to do some testing of your own camera gear and work out it’s noise signature. What is acceptable and what you can tolerate. Chris rarely goes above 3200 on his Canon 5D Mark III.
Here are the steps:
- Place your camera on a tripod in a lounge room and shoot some still life. An 18% grey card may be helpful too
- Shoot images at each ISO from 800 to your camera’s maximum
- Evaluate the resultant images and determine what is acceptable to you
If you are using high ISO, make sure you have fast lenses – f1.8, f2.8 etc – like his 70-200 f2.8
One simple solution is to purchase a 50mm f1.8 lens second hand – there are plenty about (I confess to having a nifty 50 f1.4 myself) – that will give you a lens that is fast and flexible.
ISO changes are needed depending on the speed of your subject – a Bob Dylan is ok with slow ISO, but Mick Jagger needs higher ISO and shutter speeds.
Now the tricky bit – professional events have good lighting – pubs have cheap lighting. Usually LEDs and that is hard to work with. So work with the light – use blur, have long exposures to add a dynamic element.
How to work with your subject
When photographing live music you need to know what is going on – understand the dynamics of the performance.
You first need to understand the genre. Once you’ve got that, then think about the parts of the performance.
There are verses and choruses. So you’ll have a group in a chorus, but the main performer in the verse, or a solo instrumental. Knowing how performers work and when they are likely to do something can help.
For example Steve from the Satellites (who is a double bass player) often has a big finale – time your shots for events like that. Lucky 7 have a horn section who will play together – use that.
Drummers are often left out of shots, but they do some interesting things (Chris has got know a couple and now interacts with them whilst shooting). Pick the player most likely to give you a performance.
But always be respectful of the performer. Don’t embarrass them.
How to shoot more frames
You need to commit yourself to chase the right frame and for fast action.
Most performances are 2 hours – which is 7200 seconds. After most shows Chris has about 1000 shots in the camera. That’s about 1 shot every 7 seconds. But not every shot is a winner – and some shoots the band might be having a bad night, so getting good shots is difficult.
Many bands will be slow to start (or nervous) – so don’t shoot song 1 – wait for song 2 or 3. Be patient.
Final words and where to start
Chris never shoots with any supports like a monopod – all hand held. That is part of being respectful of the audience. They are there to hear the band or dance or both. So don’t get in their way.
Some gigs require a media pass – if the band is signed to a label or it is a major event like WOMAD (who are very restrictive). The Roller Derby in Adelaide has photographers sign their rights away. In some cases your copyright may be lost – but that is another major discussion!
Venues such as The Gov are accepting of photographers if it is a local band. However, to be safe, contact the venue or the band. Many local bands don’t mind – and if you share the images they might even get you back.
And remember a big camera can be seen as problem by some venues – even if you are an amateur.
So there you have it – a great night, lots of useful information and a really entertaining evening – finished off with cake, cups of hot beverage and lots of chat. Many thanks to Chris and Melody for sharing their experience – we hope to have Chris back as some stage to share his other photographic skills with us.
Cheers
Chris 🙂
Shadows – Oct. 8th
Judy Sara – Attacama Sundeck
Well our last regular competition for the year is done and again a ‘novice’ showed the rest of us how to do Set Subject, with Judy Sara presenting a couple of great ‘Shadows’ images – Attacama Sundeck and Stripes and Straps.
Judy Sara – Stripes and Straps
Judge, Craig Field, considered every image at length and looked at what he considered could improve them, but struggled to find the right words and to see what the author was trying to achieve in a number of instances. His bottom line was, ”Would I like to hang this on my wall?”, acknowledging the subjectivity of judging. (I needed to have a tight grip on my Tiger Tiger print as he left the building! 🙂 ) As with previous judges, some of us gave him a hard time deciding if an image was in category or not, with the Shadows not being significant in the image. Mystery Woman seemed to hit the mark for Craig.
Helen Whitford – Mystery Woman
In 2016 we plan to clarify and explain Set Subject definitions more clearly to hopefully avoid “out of category” images being entered.
It was great to see Robyn Due and Bruce Nankivell also dipping their toes in the water of competition and acquitting themselves well. 🙂 Competition can be daunting, even terrifying at times, but it is also a means of receiving feedback – not only from the judge, but also from fellow club members who may provide a different perspective, and remind us that appreciation of photography, as with all art, is very subjective.
The Annual Exhibition is next and we’d love to see everyone put in at least a couple of their best images. Our last Peer Review demonstrated that there are members who have not been entering competitions but have some fabulous images which we’d love you to share.
Just to finish off, who’s that lurking in the shadows? Great shot Jen!
Jen Williams – Hiding in the Shadows
For more images from the competition don’t forget to visit the Top Prints and Top Projected Images pages.
Cheers
Helen
Long Weekend – Carrieton – Julie Goulter
Carrieton is a small community about 20 minutes north of Orroroo. The local school was purchased by the community and converted into accommodation and a caravan park. Six of us made the comfortable cottage our home for three days and the balance had powered sites in the grounds for their caravans, campervans and tents. The earliest arrival was Thursday afternoon and the latest was around midnight on Friday. The weather forecast was for very warm and dry conditions. In all, 15 members, partners and family headed for the bush to see what the gateway to the Flinders Ranges offered.
Read more and see the pictures in Camera clips. Click Here
El Presidente’s musings – October 2015
Right – so you wanted the web page to be updated regularly! I heard you. So to try and add some life to this site, I’m going to have a little article at the start of each month with most of the content (I’ll edit out the the routine stuff that doesn’t need to be repeated) from my El Presidente’s Musings emails from the last month.
21-Sep-2015
Well after the AGM, it’s time to get down to the serious business of enjoying our photography some more!
So first up, some house keeping:
- Peer Review – in the almost standard format. Bring your prints, bring your digitals. Remember, this is for constructive discussion, so don’t be afraid to share even if you’ve never shown something before.
- The Annual Exhibition is coming up. We’d love to have your images displayed. Don’t be shy – show us your best. This is judged by a panel off site, so you’ll get a score and maybe an award. I’ve attached the form. Here are few details
- images will be judged on 7-Nov-2015 (in private) for the results to be displayed on 19-Nov-2015
A reminder of the rules etc:- Each member is allowed 3 entries per section in the Annual Exhibition – and entry forms must be handed in by 22-Oct-2015 or emailed to the BPC secretary email address – blackwoodphotoclub@gmail.com by 28-Oct-2015 (so that we can be organised for the judging of the exhibition on November 7). This is for ALL entry nominations. The print entry email address is NOT BEING USED for the annual.
- The Entry Form is attached to this email, or can be obtained from the website, via the Forms page
- Prints/slides must be delivered for judging by 5-Nov-2015 (the night of the final Peer Review of the year)
- Digital entries must be emailed to the BPCdigitalentries@gmail.com account by midnight on 4-Nov-2015 – entries sent to any other account will not be considered. You have been warned!
- Entries are open to financial members of the Blackwood Photographic Club. Entries must not have been entered/displayed in any previous Blackwood Photographic Club Annual.
- We also have the Australiana Landscape Trophy
- only 3 Digital Images section entries are allowed in the Blackwood Photographic Club Annual Exhibition
- One of the the 3 images entered in the Digital Images section may be nominated for the WEA APC Australiana Landscape Trophy and should be identified as such on the nomination form
- The image must meet the following definition:
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Objects and/or people that are part of the Australian rural landscape and tell a story about that landscape may be included. The image need not conform to traditional landscape images and could highlight a significant natural feature in the landscape such as a cliff face, gum tree, mountain side, riverbed etc. Close ups of a feature against a plain background are not acceptable
- Eligibility for acceptance is to be adjudicated by the Digital Images Entry Secretary based on the definition
- Normal judging will occur of all images in the Digital Images section
- The highest score for the images entered in the Australiana Landscape Trophy will be awarded the trophy
- In the event that 2 or more images achieve the highest score, the judges will be required to choose the best of the images achieving the highest score
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- A reminder to everyone to return the trophies/plaques you may have won from last year so they can be engraved as soon as possible after the Annual Exhibition Judging – by 23-Oct-2015 please
- images will be judged on 7-Nov-2015 (in private) for the results to be displayed on 19-Nov-2015
- The Bill Templar Award nominations are also required by 28-Oct-2015 (sent to blackwoodphotoclub@gmail.com) or 23-Oct-2015 (in person to the committee). The winner will be announced at the Annual Awards night.
A reminder about the Bill Templar Award:- This award is for the Most Outstanding Contributor to the club as voted by the members – so think about who you think deserves it.
- Voting (if required) will be conducted (by email or notes to a committee member) and will close on 7-Nov-2015 (the night of the Annual Exhibition judging)
I also thought a rough summary of the discussions raised at the AGM might be in order too. So here are a few thought bubbles (not in priority order and probably not complete):
- The discussion forum idea has a lot of merit – it would be good to ask questions and get some help when needed. Flickr has limitations, but is pretty open – but it’s not the perfect vehicle. A closed Face Book page makes sense too. That could be used to gather opinion as well. We’ll need someone needed to moderate it though.
I think the committee should have a discussion but if you have any ideas please pass them on. And let’s not make the moderator one of the regulars – if you’re interested please let us know. - Outings and email lists – the Face Book page could work. Julie informed me after the AGM that Kerry and Graham have started working on the week day outings process.
In the spirit of all our other email accounts (Secretary, President, Print & Digital entries), we should probably set up a BPCoutings@gmail account. The outings coordinators can then send out emails to all as a BCC (as we do now) - Member details etc. We maintain a spread sheet, but regularly run into the problem of incorrect emails. We’ll be making a serious attempt to update this as we need to have it current, and then ensure that emails (as the main form of communication) are current.
- The issue of copyright and intellectual property is important. Thanks to Ashley for discussing it and giving some perspective to those present.
It is fairly easy to capture images from a screen – if you can see it you can get it. We will persist in only loading images that are no more than 1024 x 768 and 72 DPI. However it needs some education for all and we’ll prepare some guidelines indicating how to both protect and share images. - Competition definitions – is going to be hard work. We’ll try to improve that for both clarity and to reduce ambiguity. We need to have the ideas and their descriptions BEFORE we set the programme and get the judge coordinator to guide us. In the meantime, please send us any idea you have – and make sure the definitions are tight.
- The novice section needs a bit of thought. I like the yellow dot that Alberto & I mentioned – and the digital Novice section. Historically, the Album prints were the novice section, but digital is perhaps an easier way to enter.
But who is a novice? How many times you’ve entered? How many points you’ve accrued? How long you’ve been a member is a bit simplistic.
Perhaps a combination – not experienced elsewhere, a number of entries AND scores achieved to work out an average score. When a threshold is reached (it could be several) you are out of Novice and into main stream. It does need a sunset clause – you can’t stay novice for ever.
So 2 years max or an average score > 7.5 or 50 entries? Or some combination of all?
However, the yellow dot (unlike the novice digitals) probably shouldn’t mean easier scoring – but it should mean more constructive comments from the judges.
If you have any thoughts about a novice section please let us know - Web page – yes it is a bit stale at times. Are there any volunteers to do write ups? We might tap you on the shoulder and as for a few paragraphs and post them. We will request write ups from someone before the meeting so they are primed.
If someone has a burning desire to be an editor please let the committee know. - Peer review – has been evolving but needs some more work. The impression I get is everyone likes it. The idea of photo essays seemed to work well, and we have also considered an essays on photographers that inspire you. I think the round tables have worked well too. So we’ll mix it up a little more and see if we can evolve it further.
- New & younger members – we need to find a way to appeal to them. What do you think? How can attract new members and freshen our thinking? Our club has a proud history of being different – and new ideas help that. But new ideas are often brought in from outside.
We’ll send out the complete minutes to you soon – while the AGM is relatively fresh in your mind.
Finally, here are a couple of web pages I’ve been looking at lately with some interesting thoughts:
- https://fstoppers.com/education/ten-exercises-become-better-photographer-84261
- https://fstoppers.com/critiques/how-properly-critique-photograph-82407
28-Sep-2015
What a gloriously sunny and warm weekend! That should shake off the winter blues!
I hope those that went on the club outing to Mannum Falls had a good time – I was doing some work around the house that’s been waiting for sunshine! I’ve already seen a few images on the Flickr group – more to come please! Bruce has posted a piece on Camera Clips webpage……
We certainly had an interesting critique night last week. I was really pleased to see so many interesting images. At least 90% of the images displayed were competition level – and the rest just needed some tweaks (in my opinion – see the web links below)! Well done – hope to see them in the Annual (if not before).
So on to general business
- On 22-Oct we have a guest speaker – Chris Oaten – who will talk about photographing live music. I’ve seen the outline of Chris’ talk and it looks like we are in for a treat. Remember to bring a plate to share.
- Kerry has sent me an email about the Festival of Architecture and Design (see www.fad.org.au) which runs from 8-Oct-2015 to 13-Oct-2015. There are lots of free events (and some you’ll pay for like a tour of the infamous Z ward). Check out the web page and the program (see http://media.wix.com/ugd/9a1163_c452827a6dbd4404bc766f11f172406f.pdf) to see what is covered.
- On the topic of outings, if you have any suggestions for outings, please let me know and I’ll forward them to Graham, Kerry or James (we’ll be setting up the BPCoutings account shortly – I’ll let you know when its up and running)
Finally, some more interesting articles to read:
- http://petapixel.com/2015/09/05/why-you-should-always-make-time-for-personal-projects/
- http://petapixel.com/2015/09/06/10-famous-street-photography-quotes-you-must-know/
And two that shows the variety of image capture and perception:
- http://petapixel.com/2015/09/22/the-minimalist-bw-self-portraits-of-noell-oszvald/
- https://fstoppers.com/bts/20-photographers-are-given-same-portrait-edit-check-out-results-88063
5-Oct-2015
Well I hope you’ve had a great long weekend! Been a tad warm. I’m sure we’ll see lots of images from the long weekend, including the Flinder’s Ranges outing soon.
Unfortunately, I missed a lot of the weekend – had to work both in the office and interstate 😦
But I did get a few shots in from the Oz Asia Festival (my wife and I were part of the mega crowd) and had some fun in China Town in Melbourne last night (had to work in Melbourne today….). Once again, I’ve been inspired by night shoots which show a different side to the cities you know. Hopefully the outings masters will organise a night shoot whilst the weather is warm and give you all a chance to play in this wonderland of light and shadow.
So on to the routine stuff:
- This week is the Shadows competition (not the band from the 60s!). The digital entries have closed but you can still enter prints by sending the subject and the titles to bpcprintcompetition@gmail.com by 7pm Tuesday night
- Don’t forget the Annual Exhibition and Bill Templar award – we already have an Annual entry form from one enthusiastic member
- Next meeting (22-Oct) is our guest speaker Chris Oaten – all about live music photography!
And now to a some interesting web links again – this time about 2 different photographers – one current and one regarded as a father of photography as art.
I like to listen to podcasts when travelling on planes (the in flight entertainment is pretty average!) and rather like Ted Forbes The Art of Photography
Ted has some interesting conversations and the two that have taken my fancy this weekend have been on street photographer John Free (visit his website for lots of images and idea) and another on Ansel Adams (you can also view some images of Adams work on the site).
Most of you know my opinion regarding photography as more than just a picture that some judge likes and these two podcasts reinforce that. John Free tells stories with his street photography with (as he puts it) trying to (and I’ll paraphrase it) generate an emotion from your photograph and not just a print, whilst Ansel Adams escaped the pictorialist view of early photography clubs and created art with his landscapes. In both cases, photography has moved beyond the purely technical – although the technical needs to be understood to achieve their outcomes – and on to a higher plane. Something we should all aspire too. Have a look and tell me what you think.
Cheers
Chris 😉
BPC Mannum Falls
There is a new article in Camera clips about the recent excursion to Mannum falls. There is a write up by Bruce Nankivell. It is a great chance to compare notes and see what photos were taken by your fellow club members. Follow the link – The other Mannum – by Bruce Nankivell
James
September Edition Camera Clips
We have just published our September edition of Camera Clips. I would strongly recommend that you have a look. There are some excellent articles from club members. In my mind there are 3 articles that stand out.
- Jack Dascombe writes about his passion for infra red photography
- Bruce Nankervill tells about his journey on the Camina de Santiago in Spain. (This article has had over 75 view in it’s first week.)
- Vivian Maier an American nanny has achieved post-humus fame upon discovery of her massive archive of unprocessed street photography.
There are also excellent articles by Jen Williams and a collection of photos from the Mt Lofty Botanical Gardens excursion.
To have a look, follow the following link; Camera Clips September 2015
I hope that you enjoy this edition.
James
Nature in the City – Aug. 27th
Helen Whitford_City Gulls
It seems that at Blackwood PC we are all individuals and won’t be told what to photograph! 🙂 Once again our set subject received far fewer entries than the Open section, although Nature in the City seemed like a relatively user-friendly subject. Judge, Keith Seidel, came armed with his ready wit to exchange repartee with Chris over image titles and his penchant for segues. Keith took our images seriously though, thoughtfully discussing aspects which impressed him and offering suggestions for improvement.
It was great to see one of our relatively newer members, David Brown, do well with his artistic images – Microcosm and Silk Screen and battle with Alberto Giurelli and Helen Whitford for top spots in the Colour Prints. Current President, Ashley Hoff, made a great impression with his projected monochromes and James Allan and Gloria Brumfield showed some beautiful nature and wildlife images.
But competitions nights are not just about scores – they’re a great opportunity to receive feedback on your images from an experienced photographer and to show other members your images that you like. All members are encouraged to enter competitions and especially now start gathering your best images for our Annual Exhibition. It would be fantastic to see at least one or two images from all members!
Visit our Top Projected Images and Top Print Images to see some of this month’s great images, and scroll back through the year for perhaps a little inspiration!
The 7 Deadly Sins – Sloth wins! – July 16th
Ron Hassan – Sunset in Turkey – Open
Last month I mentioned that I hoped we’d do better with our Set Subject this time around but it seems that while there was a little envy over other people’s scores and pride in achievement, we mostly displayed sloth (or am I being mean saying we were too lazy to get out there and find some sins to photograph?) Perhaps we’re all too angelic or maybe we need to stick to more conventional Set Subjects? Committee members will be looking for suggestions for 2016!
Out of a total of 68 images presented on the night just 8 were in the Set Subject. At least we didn’t give the judge, Susie Lipert, too much difficulty in deciding what was ‘in category’. Susie gave a lot of thoughtful feedback, showing a preference for sharpness throughout the image and often urging us to get in tighter. She made the poignant comment that maybe what the author intended was not what she was seeing. Subjectivity in judging is unavoidable, and I’m sure we all want the judge to ‘get’ our image, but this is never guaranteed!
We were all very pleased to see Ron Hassan’s “Sunset in Turkey” get the recognition it deserves with a 10. Gloria Brumfield is also shining this year with some brilliant wildlife and nature images.
Gloria Brumfield – Is it Edible? – Open
Ursula Prucha impressed the judge with her night light scenes, taking out all the Projected Image tops.
Ursula Prucha – West Terrace Light Show – Open
It was great to see an excellent turnout on such a cold night and brilliant to again see a number of new members and visitors. It would be great to see entries from our new members in the next competition – “Nature in the City”!
As always, click the links for Top Prints and Top Projected Images.
Cheers
Helen 🙂
Picassa and Gimp Workshop – Free Image Software – Chris Schultz & James Allan
For those who would like to follow the instructions of the GIMP exercise, (The painted angel) there is an article posted in Camera clips that will take you through the steps.
Create a Grunge Angel In Gimp. James Allan
And for those interested in some basic Picasa use – have a look at Chris’ slides from last Thursday on YouTube
James
Minilimist, Milinimist……Minimalist…got it! – June 4th
Jennifer Williams_On Reflection_Set
Minimalist Landscape ….tricky to say, even harder to define and apparently almost impossible to actually select pictures for which truly fit the category!
Perhaps we needed to go back to school and have a lesson on what a Minimalist Landscape is! We created a bit of a headache for judge, Suzanne Opitz, in trying to decide which images were “in category” and which were not, as only around half of the images submitted for the set subject truly qualified as both “minimalist” and “landscape”! Jennifer Williams nailed it with “On Reflection”, and Huw Rosser dabbling in the waters of the Novice section with “On the Edge”, taught us a lesson in Minimalism.
Huw Rosser_On the Edge_Set
Suzanne seemed relieved each time a section switched from Minimalist Landscape to the Open category (and not just because “minimalist” is a bit of a tongue twister). Then her self-confessed penchant for vignetting and cropping came out as she urged us to get in tighter and darken our edges.
It was great to see some newer members venturing into competition and other members demonstrating their developing processing skills.
Click on the links to see the rest of the Top Prints and Top Projected Images.
We might have struggled with Minimalist Landscape, but I predict we’ll all be experts on the next set subject – “The 7 Deadly Sins” 🙂
Cheers
Helen
Mt Lofty Botanical Gardens
We had a great excursion on Sunday to the Mt Lofty Botanical Gardens. Head on over to Camera Clips and you can check out the gallery of images that has been submitted by those attending. Click here
James
Music in our souls – 12-Mar-2015
The competition – Music.
The images – 116 incredibly varied photographs.
The judge – David Smith.
The Outcome – BPC members with music in their souls!
About 45 BPC members and visitors attended on a night with colourful and intriguing images of music being performed, danced to, instruments close ups, musicians in action and lots more. Some images obviously came from the archives (a very young Cliff Richard was observed). And some images were so fresh they had titles like Music 1 and Music 2. Mad March in Adelaide supplied a lot of the images from the Clipsal 500, the Adelaide Festival of Arts, the Adelaide Fringe and WOMAD. There was something for everyone! Even beer (well – a picture of beer).
Judge David Smith worked through the images with care despite the large number, giving constructive critique and a fairly large number of 10s in the process. Not that the recipients complained!
Two things stood out tonight:
- The high quality and creativeness in the novice competition – well done!
- Ron Hassan’s Sunset image
I’ve delayed publishing this whilst I chased images – but not all have turned up. Check out the ones we did get as usual at our Top Prints and Top Digital pages.
Keep on dancing to the music!
Chris 🙂
Composing in Black and White – Arthur Farmer – (author James Allan)
Arthur Farmer was guest speaker at our March meeting. I can say that I really enjoyed his presentation. He gave a talk on Black and white photography. Arthur has a preference for monochrome slides. With the switch to digital media it is getting a lot harder to do nowadays. His favourite film has gone out of production and he needs to send it away to the US to print his slides. I took some rough notes from Arthur’s talk. I would like to put some of his images into this article. Hopefully I will be able to add some as they become available.
It was apleasure watching the skillfully crafted images. Arthur mixed his slides with explanations of his approach to photography. “Photography is representational and not just representative”. He quoted widely, Will Nolan, Ken Rockwell, Ansel Adams, Edward Weston. “Simplify and Exclude” was the mantra of Ken Rockwell. The ‘s’ from simplify and the ‘ex’ from exclude make the acronym sex. “Removing colour stripped back an image to its elements”, Arthur explained, “black and white is the essence of the subject, the root of art.”
Arthur exhibits a high level of technical competence. His landscapes are sharp from the foreground to the back ground. He handles highlights and dark areas well, preserving detail where possible. He uses texture to good effect. Arthur explains, “The first impression of an image is emotional and therefore important and often better than analytical or logical evaluation.”
Quoting Edward Weston he exhorts us to pre-visualize the image before taking it. Arthur believed in composing pictures. He uses lines to lead to the subject. Silhouettes can be powerful, as can movement. Curves, textures, Shadow, foreground details are all important. Real life has too much detail. The photographer has to simplify things. Get in close. It is OK to crop things out of the picture. Keep it sharp.
A longer article from this session has been posted in Camera clips. So make sure you have a read. As said previously, I really enjoyed this session. It gets back to the joys and pleasures of taking photographs. To quote Arthur, “’amateur’ comes from the Latin word ‘amore’, meaning to love. That’s why we take photographs, because we love it.”
Spain through my lens – Paul Hughes – 12-Feb-2015
A large audience of 43 members and visitors at our last meeting were present as BPC President, Ashley Hoff, welcomed English visitor Paul Hughes (and North Norfolk Photographic Society member) and his family to our meeting. Paul had earlier contacted the club and offered to show his photographic record of his walk through northern Spain along the renowned pilgrim route known as Camino de Santiago – it is also known as the St James’ Way or the French Way. It commences in the French town of St Jean Pied-de-Port and finishes at famous Romanesque Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, a journey of about 800 kilometers.
Paul explained that after much research and with the generous encouragement from his wife Kate he decided to do the walk to mark the year of his 70th birthday. The trade off was Kate would visit family in Blackwood South Australia.
The first thing – other than the walk – that Paul mentioned was the need to travel light. He left behind his large SLR and lenses that weighed almost 10kg – his research had indicated that a pack of 7kg was about the limit. Instead he used a smaller Canon Powershot G12 so he could carry clothes and water. In one image he showed us was this travel beaten camera that served him well.
It was not long before everyone was being taken along the walk through Paul’s many photos using landscape and portraits as well as well placed videos of the various characters he came across in the many towns and villages he passed through.
Paul had initially decided to do the first short leg of the journey up to Puene la Reina. But after returning home and much thought he chose to complete the full journey.
The basic but adequate bunk accommodation (including bed bugs) and the camaraderie quickly established between the walkers along the way were experiences obviously enjoyed by Paul. His shots of the Pyrenees landscape to the flat plains known as the bread basket of Spain and the various wine regions along the way were fantastic. The architecture from Roman bridges to modern city buildings, the vast Gothic Cathedral in Burgos and the stain glass in the cathedral at the Leon were outstanding.
During Paul’s presentation we were given an insight into the various cultures and Spanish way of life. This included those in the famous wine lands of Rioja, the streets and people of Pamplona, famous for its bull running festival and culturally rich Leon.
Upon conclusion Paul invited everyone to view the mementos of the trip has referred to during his presentation. Fortunately, he didn’t bring any of the boots he found – often seen abandoned on the walk.
Many members used this opportunity to discuss Paul’s walk with him and to add to the vote of thanks made by Ashley at the conclusion of the presentation.
Sam Savage
You can see many of Paul’s photos on Flickr
Blue for you – 29-Jan-2015
Blue – it evokes a range of emotions, has a range of meanings and is seen all around us. For some it is sadness or melancholy and for others it is calming and soothing. We relate blue to cooler temperatures. We listen to blues music, and often see it in corporate colours. In some cultures blue means a boys colour (but in others its for girls). It’s the colour of the sky and of water. Blue is often a favourite colour (no Monty Python quotes here) – or not – but that also depends on culture. Many people wear blue clothing (blue jeans!). It is the colour of an utterly insignificant little planet in the outer western spiral arm of the galaxy. Technically, blue is a primary spectral colour, with a wavelength of 450-495nm and RGB value of 0,0,255. Until the advent of modern chemical dyes, it was a difficult colour to reproduce and source from minerals such as lapis lazuli and cobalt or plants such as woad. Early photographic emulsions were overly blue sensitive making colour reproduction difficult which was overcome with the advent of panchromatic films.
But enough of the philosophy and history of blue. How about some photographic representation? There were plenty of people present to see how we could represent blue in our images – 40 members, 3 guests and judge Peter Phillips. On this occasion Peter had 108 images to judge (of which 45 were set subject). Peter seems to be making a habit of visiting our club at the start of the year as a judge – and that may be a good thing as he carefully and efficiently judged the images, giving some very good critique, sharing his insights, and handing out scores. As Peter carefully pointed out at the start, the scores he gave were his opinion – but the most important opinion was that of the photographer responsible for the image. Despite his warning – he did hand out a lot of very good marks (I counted eleven 10s and fifteen 9s – that’s almost 25% of the images). We also shared our usual club banter with the judge (there were a lot of puns and segues) making the night the usual friendly, relaxed affair we all enjoy.
Jennifer Williams – Something Blue – Colour (Set)
So – how did we go?
Well the usual offenders obtained their expected high scores (and a few lower ones as well), but a few new faces emerged that will threaten the status quo! Jen Williams shook up the competition with the image at left. I’ve been watching Jen’s work on Flickr – and I think other BPC members should not be complacent. This image evoked no comment from Peter other than “10”. Enough said about that.
Gloria Brumfield is showing off her talent too with some great images. Dean Johnson again showed his ability with just one very clever image. David Hope gave us a stark landscape. And Perry Phillips took a punt in the novice section with some unusual images of silica gel (I knew what it was) – I hope we’ll be seeing more from him.
It was also good to see Theo and Ursula Prucha return to the club and get a few high scores in the process.
So – the first competition of the year is over. Check out the images that scored highest in the Top digital and Top print pages.
Cheers
Chris 🙂
Blackwood Photographic Club of South Australia Inc. 